Bill Haas took advantage of familiar surroundings to fire a flawless eight-under-par 64 for a two-stroke lead after the first round of the Quail Hollow Championship on Thursday. Haas putted brilliantly in posting four birdies on each side to lead former PGA Championship winner David Toms and Jonathan Byrd, who both registered 66s.
Another shot back were former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover and Pat Perez. The 28-year-old Haas, who was born in Charlotte, went to Wake Forest University in North Carolina and lives a 90-minute drive away in Greenville, South Carolina, rescued par after an errant approach shot at 18 to maintain his bogey-free round.
“That was good,” Haas said about his round, adding that his belly putter was his best asset on the day. “I made every putt I needed to make.” Haas won his first two PGA Tour titles last year and came close to defending his crown at the Bob Hope Classic this season before losing in a playoff. He has the comfort factor working for him this week.
“It feels like home here,” he said. Toms and Byrd, unlike Haas, were among the early starters at Quail Hollow and had to deal with chilly temperatures and windy conditions that lengthened many of the holes at an already testing course that measures nearly 7,500 yards. “It was cold this morning, and I just hung in there,” said Toms. “It started to warm up, and I birdied six, eagled seven, and all of a sudden I’m into the round and playing well.” Toms, who won the inaugural tournament here in 2003, said the wind blew in the opposite direction he was used to.
“It was awfully long, that front nine this morning. I think I hit wood four times into holes in regulation,” he said. Breaking the U.S. monopoly at the top of the leaderboard were Australian Stuart Appleby, Sweden’s Carl Pettersson and Vijay Singh of Fiji, all bunched at four-under 68 along with Americans Rickie Fowler and Jim Herman.
Britain’s Rory McIlroy, who blazed to his first PGA Tour title here last year after shooting a course-record 62 on the final day, struggled on Thursday with a three-over-par 75. The Northern Irishman had five bogeys and just two birdies for the day. “Not the start I was looking for,” tweeted McIlroy, who turned 22 on Wednesday. McIlroy hit only eight fairways and 10 greens and needed 32 putts in the round.
